Community Book Party Celebrates the Activists and Coalition Behind

24 Apr Community Book Party Celebrates the Activists and Coalition Behind

Historian Karilyn Crockett’srecent book People Before Highwaysis one of the first studies of the neighborhood leaders who, in the 1960s and 70s, built an extraordinary coalition of grassroots support that stopped the ill-conceivedI-695, also known as the Inner Belt. The proposed eight-lane superhighway would have cut through Jamaica Plain, Roxbury and the Fenway, and then crossed the Charles River to Cambridgeport, Central Square and Somerville on its way to I-93.

Crockett will pay tribute to those activist leaders at a party and celebration in their honor, along with a reading from her new book on Tuesday May 22nd. The event will take place from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Roxbury Community College, Building 3 (Student Commons), 1234 Columbus Avenue in Roxbury.

Come join this reunion of some of the region’s greatest organizers and hear their perspectives on their successes of nearly 50 years ago.